The man in the right place at the right time in Queensland’s Origin miracle of 1994, Mark Coyne is loving the look of things right here, right now.
MARK Coyne, State of Origin’s miracle man, is enjoying his own version of rugby league’s promised land.
A proud and loyal Maroon and Dragon, Coyne may well have been the happiest football fan on the planet last year when both of his ships steamed home in emphatic fashion.
“It was nirvana for me, absolutely,” Coyne told Queenslander Magazine. “It was a great year for me.
For Queensland to get the five in a row was a remarkable achievement, and full credit goes to Mal and his team for what they have done.
“And then of course there was the Dragons finally breaking the drought after going 31 years of not winning, we finally got one.
“I still have a lot of people coming up to me talking about how great it is that the Dragons won.
“I think there was a fair bit of angst among the fans that the club carried that choker tag, so I was most pleased for the fans that they were able to savour that premiership.
“I am not a mental follower of football these days, but I was just so pleased for the players, the coaching staff and most importantly the fans that such a great club was finally able to experience that success after such a long time of missing out.”
Coyne says he watches the current Queensland team with awe, marvelling at their record-breaking achievements and fiercely proud that they have been able to uphold the spirit and passion of the Maroon jersey.
“They are awesome. Every year they just get better and better,” he said. “I said to someone last year that the Queensland team plays like a club team now.
“One of the great things that Mal has been able to do is bring back that stability to Queensland teams, and that was one of the keys to success in the 1980s as well, just managing to keep the same group of guys together.
“And you can see what a difference it makes to the current team. They know each other’s games inside and out, they instinctively know what the bloke beside them is doing, and that is a wonderful head start for any team.
“It is always hard to compare eras, but you would have to say now that after five in a row and with a clean sweep to their credit they would rate as the best Queensland team ever.
“The best thing about their success is that the passion and the understanding of what it means to play for Queensland is back.
“All of the current team seems to understand what it is all about, and that includes some blokes who weren’t even born when Origin began.
“But they know the history and tradition of Queensland’s Origin team, and you can tell in the way they play that it means a hell of a lot to them.”
The success of the Maroons and Dragons in 2010 was made all the sweeter for Coyne because of an astonishing personal title drought during his playing career.
A talented and dependable centre, Coyne played in seven series with the Maroons but only tasted a series success once – in 1995.
And with the Dragons, Coyne played in three losing grand finals in 1992, 93 and 96, and then had to watch from the sidelines in 1999 because of injury as the newly merged St George-Illawarra Dragons crashed to Melbourne in the decider.
He did however win a title with Brothers, in the last of the “pre-Broncos” Brisbane grand finals, scoring a try in their 26-8 win over Redcliffe in 1987.
Not that there is any suggestion Coyne’s career was short of highlights. Far from it. In fact, his involvement in two Origin “miracles” has guaranteed his place on every Origin highlight reel for the rest of time.
One was his role in the unforgettable 3-0 series whitewash by Paul Vautin’s underdogs in 1995, and the second was as the scorer of “the try from hell” – State of Origin’s greatest try, the final-minute match-winner from 1994.
It was like a rugby league version of the JFK assassination. Every Queenslander can still tell you where they were the night Coyne plonked the ball down for Origin’s greatest escape, as commentator Ray Warren bellowed “that’s not a try, it’s a miracle”.
“I actually only played seven minutes of that game, so I didn’t really play a big part in the game – aside from the last minute,” Coyne recalled. “It is a fantastic memory for me.
“It was a great team try, made even better with the circumstances in which it was scored and with the fact that it won the game.
“But you know, it really was a team try, there were a hell of a lot of hands involved in getting the ball to me. What we did as a team was a fantastic thing, I was just lucky enough to be the finisher of it.
“It is a nice thing to be remembered for. You look back over your career and you are remembered for certain things. That is a pretty good one to be remembered for, that is for sure.”
After hanging up the boots, Coyne became involved in the area of workers compensation, and he is now the Managing Director and CEO of Coal Services in Sydney.
“We mainly do the workers compensation insurance for the coal industry in NSW and also run the mines rescue division,” Coyne said.
“We do any rescue operations that are needed in the coal mines. We are the people that go out and help with that.
“We had heaps of people over in New Zealand with the incident there just before Christmas, and while it was obviously a terrible and disappointing result at the end of it all for the people over there, it is a good feeling being able to get in there to help those people when they need it the most.”
Mark Coyne
FOG No: 64
Position: Centre
Clubs: Brothers, St George, St George Illawarra
Queensland: 19 Origin matches (1990, 1992-97)
Australia: 9 Tests (1995-97)
